RACINE — Twelve Racine women effectively
closed a block of Sixth Street for an hour Friday afternoon after they
sat in the middle of the street in front of U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan’s
office, 216 Sixth St., to push him to take action on immigration reform.
Police
blocked off the street at Main Street and allowed the women to address a
crowd of several dozen that gathered in front of the Racine office for
Ryan, the Janesville Republican who represents Racine County in Congress.

The women-led protest, organized by the Milwaukee-based
immigrant rights group Voces de la Frontera, called on Ryan to work for
speedy immigration reform and stop deportations.
Police wrote down
each woman’s information and told them that they would be cited for the
incident, according to Joe Shansky, a representative of the
organization.

Cecilia Anguiano, right, talks about her
family's struggles with immigration, as
she and her mother, Sofi Anguiano, center,
and her grandmother, Luz Maria Hernandez,
left block Sixth Street with other women
during a immigration reform protest Friday
afternoon, November 9, 2013, outside
Congressman Paul Ryan's office in Downtown Racine.
Gregory Shaver gregory.shaver@journaltimes.com

One of the women, 77-year-old Racine resident Luz
Maria Hernández, said some of her children have been waiting in Mexico
for 17 years for their visas to be approved.
“I have no fear
because I’m fighting for my children and for many families who also
suffer and are saddened,” said Hernández, who has nine children, 31
grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
Hernández, her one
daughter who has been able to move to Racine, 57-year-old Sofia
Anguiano, and her granddaughter Cecilia Anguiano were three of the women
cited during the protest.
Hernández and her granddaughter were
arrested together in a protest in Washington, D.C., in September, but
Sofia Anguiano said that Friday was the first time she has ever been
ticketed in the United States.
Another protester, Luisa Morales,
25, said that deportations are of particular concern for her because she
was raised in Racine by two parents who were
always at risk of being
deported.

“I feared everyday in my childhood because they came to
this country undocumented,” she said. “I had to grow up much sooner than
most kids.”
Shansky said that the organization has held similar
protests in front of the offices of Ryan, Gov. Scott Walker and Sen. Ron
Johnson in the past to spur action on immigration reform.
The
protest began at about 3 p.m. and lasted for about an hour, until the
women concluded the protest and willingly moved out of the street.